Psychological well-being in informal caregivers

Abstract

The psychological well-being of the Informal Caregiver is influenced by positive or negative factors, which determine the quality and well-being, or on the contrary, the burden of the caregiver. The aim of this study was to assess the level of psychological well-being of Informal Caregivers in a Community Care Unit in the north of Portugal. This was a cross-sectional, descriptive study whose population was informal caregivers of dependent people. A questionnaire was used to characterise sociodemographics and the psychological well-being scale, whose score ranges from zero to thirty, with the higher the score, the higher the level of psychological well-being. The majority of Informal Caregivers were female and belonged to the 60 and over age groups. In terms of marital status, most were married and retired. They lived with the dependent person and were children/spouses/partners. The income of 55.5% of the households was less than 900 euros. It should be noted that only 17% of Informal Caregivers scored highly on the psychological well-being scale, 61.1% said they felt quite uncomfortable, annoyed or nervous and 66.7% tired, exhausted or worn out. It should be emphasised that the intervention of health professionals facilitates the process of adapting to the role of caregiver and promotes the psychological well-being of Informal Caregivers.